Chiefs rookie could get first real targets of season after Jody Fortson's injury

Going big has kept the Kansas City Chiefs from going home in recent years.

Last postseason, the Chiefs won their second consecutive Super Bowl for a number of reasons—a legendary head coach, the best player in the game at quarterback, an all-world defense—but a portion of the offense's success in the NFL playoffs was based on the team's ability to go big with its personnel.

In Chiefs' parlance, the package called Rhino, going with 13 personnel (which means 1 running back with 3 tight ends). If the Chiefs want to take things to 14 personnel (and add another tight end), it's called T-Rex. Either way, it can be a matchup nightmare in the right situation and the Chiefs have found the grouping rather useful along the way.

If the Chiefs want to continue to emphasize bigger personnel on offense, it could mean our first real look at Jared Wiley.

It made a lot of sense for the Chiefs to go bigger in the playoffs a year ago. The wide receiving corps was pitiful all season long, so any way to minimize dependence on a frustrating unit is a wise way to go. The game also gets a lot more physical right as the weather turns colder. In such situations, a guy like Noah Gray is more likely to fare better than someone like Devon Wylie in certain situations. (A hat tip to hardcore Chiefs fans on that one.)

So far this season, the Chiefs are taking things to a new level. In 2023, the Chiefs were already well above the league average in running 13 personnel on 7.1% of all plays (more than twice the NFL average of 3.2%). In 2024, however, they've taken things to a new level—to 16.1%—while the NFL average has remained the same.

The Chiefs signaled this with a couple of moves this offseason. First, they unexpectedly locked up Noah Gray to a multi-year extension—even while others like linebacker Nick Bolton and guard Trey Smith were still waiting. Second, they spent a fourth-round pick on tight end Jared Wiley out of TCU in this spring's NFL Draft.

Most recently they even re-signed Jody Fortson to the roster after he failed to hang on with the Miami Dolphins after leaving for South Florida in free agency. From that point, the Chiefs began to experiment with T-Rex and lean on 14 personnel. Unfortunately, Fortson went down after only three games in his return to Arrowhead with a serious leg injury.

While the stats are minimal, Fortson at least earned three targets in his time back with the Chiefs, while the jury is still out on any impact from Wiley. The rookie has a single target to his name—a 7-yard catch from Week 2—despite playing in every game so far in 2024. In fact, Wiley has played in 20 percent of all offensive snaps yet never sees a target.

Going forward, it will be interesting to see if this changes for the Chiefs. The trust clearly isn't there yet on the part of Wiley and other targets are obviously in play as well on the limited amount of snaps that he gets. But given his playing time, it makes sense that he would at least garner 1-2 targets per game at minimum instead of the zeroes that occupy the stat sheet week after week.

As the second half of the season approaches, and with Fortson on the mend, it will be interesting to see whether Wiley develops at all as an auxiliary target for the Chiefs in bigger offensive packages. The ball skills were always there—to the tune of 47 catches for 520 yards and 8 scores at TCU last year—and now it's about refining his technique and rounding out his game to make sure he's an asset no matter what the game throws at him.